A common characteristic of most paraffin waxes is that they are solid or semi-solid at ambient temperature and liquid at elevated temperatures. For transportation from source to end-use location, high melting paraffin waxes that are solid at ambient temperature are usually solidified and handled as solid shaped articles, e.g. pellets, blocks or plates, often in combination with fibres.
The solidification usually requires a solidification apparatus such as cooling belt or prill towers and an energy intensive process. Furthermore the obtained products often cause blocking problems during transport, e.g. under gravity pressure. Alternatively, a wax has to be distilled and treated such that only a very high boiling portion is employed which has a sufficiently high melting point or hardness. This is cumbersome and requires energy consuming processes.
Lower melting paraffin materials are usually transported in bulk or in containers. When transported in bulk, they have to be maintained at a temperature sufficiently high to maintain a viscosity low enough to allow for easy pumping and transfer. When transported in containers, e.g. metal drums or ibc's, the wax temperature usually drops to ambient and the product becomes solid or semi-solid. These containers are then generally transported and stored at ambient temperature.
Methods of shipping such wax compositions create problems related to the cost and disposal of the packaging materials. Before use, the containers and the material they contain have to be heated up to allow for the handling of the product. This requires specific heating apparatus, an excessive amount of heat, and may result in damage to the material and container due to hot spots. It further involves cumbersome handling at elevated temperatures.
Furthermore, the removal of residual wax from the containers is difficult, while equally reducing the amount that can actually be employed. The used containers further often have to be disposed of due to the residual wax inside. Further, the containers create other difficulties in that in absence of suitable heating equipment a great deal of physical force must be applied to the adhesive to extract it from these containers, making the wax difficult and inconvenient to handle.
The above described disadvantages are even further elevated when microcrystalline wax products having a congealing point of 95-120° C. are to be transported, such as the Fischer-Tropsch derived products as described for instance in EP-A-1534802. The softness of such wax products makes their handling as a solid material particularly difficult at higher ambient temperatures, while transport, as the molten product requires maintenance at a temperature above the congealing temperature, which is difficult and economically often not feasible.
Accordingly, there remains the need to devise a suitable means for cooling, storing and transporting such materials. Yet further, the above disclosed wax products are highly suitable as additives for bitumen for various uses. It would therefore be desirable to have packaged paraffin wax that can be transported and blended with bitumen in an efficient manner.